1. Field
Apparatuses and methods consistent with exemplary embodiments relate to registering medical images of different modalities.
2. Description of the Related Art
With recent developments in medical technologies, high definition medical images may be obtained and also fine manipulation of medical equipment has become possible. Accordingly, a method of treating a patient by directly forming a small hole in the skin, inserting a catheter or a medical needle into the patient's body, and observing the interior regions by using medical imaging equipment has been developed. The method is referred to as a medical treatment method using an image or an interventional image medical treatment method.
Accordingly, a medical practitioner may identify the position of an organ or a lesion through an image. In addition, the medical practitioner recognizes a change according to the patient's breathing or moving during a medical treatment. Thus, the medical practitioner needs to accurately and quickly recognize the breathing or moving based on a real-time medical image. However, it is difficult to clearly identify the shapes of an organ and a lesion from a real-time medical image with the naked eye.
In contrast to an ultrasonic wave image, a magnetic resonance (MR) image or a computed tomography (CT) image may clearly distinguish an organ and a lesion. However, since an MR or CT image cannot be obtained in real-time during a medical treatment, the breathing and moving of a patient during the medical treatment cannot be detected in real-time in the MR or CT image.
Therefore, a real-time medical image and a medical image having a different modality from the real-time medical image need to be registered. A plurality of medical images of different modalities may be registered by obtaining features from the plurality of medical images, but it may be difficult to perform registration depending on image quality.